ArchivedLogs:Just Listen

Just Listen
Dramatis Personae Mai, Rasa
In Absentia	2017-01-07 "I noticed that you have skin too."
Location <NYC> Busboys and Poets - East Harlem
A quiet, artsy spot nestled away on a side street in East Harlem, Busboys and Poets combines cafe and bookstore in a way a Starbucks tacked on to a Barnes & Noble could never achieve. The food is a solid, multi-national cuisine menu that caters to all kinds of dietary choices, and its fair-trade tea menu is extensive. Its weekend brunch tends to draw a large crowd, but there is ample enough seating both at tables and on its many comfortable armchairs and couches that at other times of the week there is never a wait. The walls are adorned with the work of local artists, and tucked in among and alongside the couches are rows upon rows of books, with a definite slant towards the political and the bohemian. Its a fairly quiet afternoon at the Busboys and Poets at the moment it seems, not fully deserted by any means, but certainly no rush hour either. There are people sitting here and there, and among those people is Mai, enjoing her day off from work, she is sitting at a table by the window, occasionally looking up to the window to verify that yes, it is still snowing outside, before returning her attention down to a sketchbook on the table front of her, which she is drawing something to with a pencil. She has likely been here for awhile already, judging from the big, almost empty mug of tea on the table also, as well as the remains of a sandwich, and it doesn't look like she is in any hurry to go anywhere either. Winter gear generally provides fairly good covering for those who don't wish to be seen. Rasa is one of those people and is currently bundled from head to toe in a hefty coat, thick gloves, hat, scarf, and boots. Hir legs are wrapped in baggy, ill fitting jeans, but the way the fabric falls, it's fairly safe to assume that they are the fleece lined variety. Once ze stomps the loose snow off hir boots on the entry rug, ze begins to remove some of hir layers. Beneath hir gloves are other gloves, this looser and form fitting knit in bright, bright colors that... do not match the other. Hir coat unzips to display a long kurta in yellow and purple and the hair under the hat is long, stringy and black. Hir skin is remarkably gray, something ze attempts to downplay by wrapping hir shawl like scarf over hir head and around hir neck. Ze heads for the food counter to order, stuffing hir hat and gloves in hir pockets. Mai bites her lower lip some in concentration as she does some very careful strokes with the pencil on apparently especially tricky part of what she is working on. Then once that is done, she relaxes and glances up again with a smile, which is when she spots the just arrived person who, judging from the sheer amount of clothing, hates the cold as much as Mai does herself! Just the mere reminder of the cold makes her shiver a bit, and reach for her mug of tea, which she finds is disappointingly enough not all that hot anymore, but drinks down the rest of it anyway, before getting up and walking towards the counter for a refill, offering a friendly smile and a nod in greeting to the other person there. "Pretty cold today?" Rasa orders a turtle hot chocolate and a turkey blt, fumbling with hir pants pocket to pull out a wallet and cash to pay. Ze tenses when Mai addresses hir, hir face paling further. That sickly gray creeps back in after a breath and dark eyes shift toward the woman beside hir. "Yeah... Guess it is. Nice in here though." Ze steps back when ze has hir change, moving to the side so Mai can order, a distinctly worried look in the glance of hir eyes. Mai is somewhat surprised by the... girls(?) reaction to her simple conversation opener, especially the whole visual changes in color on Rasa's face, which kind of makes her guess that they are a mutant. "Uhh, I hope I didn't startle you? But yeah, your totally right, this place is cool, one of my favorites." is offered in a friendly tone, before she turns her attention to the person behind the counter and taps her mug to indicate that she would like a re-fill, then while that is being processed, she digs through her pockets for some money to pay for it with, before accepting the, now again satisfyingly steaming mug back. "Nothing like a hot drink to chase off the cold." is noted towards Rasa as she starts making her way bag towards her table, which makes her to notice the worried look. "Is everything alright?" "Good to know..." Rasa utters quietly, waiting another moment or two until hir food and drink are ready. "Everything's fine. It's just... Do I know you? You seem like... well, you seem like you recognize me. Or... wait, are you hitting on me? I'm bad at this." Ze circles hir fist around hir chest in apology. "I can't really tell, but if you are, I'm seeing someone and we've been together for a long time so it's not really going to change." Ze collects hir mug and plate when they arrive, turning a half step to look for a table, but pausing long enough to allow Mai the chance to respond. Mai takes a sip from her mug, carefully as it is hot again now, so much that it makes her wince a bit as she is reminded of the fact. Setting it down on the table then as she sits down, before giving a surprised look to Rasa's rambling. "Uhh... no... I don't think so at least? I was just being friendly. I apologize if it sounded something else. I didn't mean to stare... I just couldn't help but notice the... changing colors." She tries to explain, motioning to her own face with her hand as she says the last part to indicate what she is referring to. "Friendly?" Rasa's response is confused more so than skeptical, but it does have a hint of that as well. Ze puts hir stuff down at a near by table before removing hir coat and draping it across the back of hir chair. "Haven't had a lot of 'friendly' lately." Ze is just about to get comfortable when Mai mentions hir skin color, hir black eyes darting upward to stare her down, studying her expression and body language. "Oh... 'kay." Mai gives a look down at the half-finished sketch on the table that she was working on, which is a portrait style pencil drawing of Marinov, its not professonal quality or anything, but its decent enough that can at least tell it is them, she is practicing drawing fur, which is surprisingly tricky to make look right. Looking back up to Rasa as they reply to her words. "I know what you mean. There has been lots of bad things happening... if only people could learn to get along." She offers in agreement to Rasa. Hearing the sudden reservation in the voice for the last part of what is said, she covers her mouth with her hand, eyes widening some, not again! "I, I didn't mean it in a bad way. Please don't be angry? It just... was eye-catching... in a good way." she tries to explain somewhat awkwardly. Rasa shakes hir head and settles into hir seat, reaching out to take hir mug in hir hands, cradling it close and bringing it to hir nose to inhale. Ze keeps quiet despite Mai's awkward explanations, the chocolate and caramel doing more to relax hir than that. "I noticed that you have skin too." Mai takes another sip from her tea to try to calm her thoughts before she makes herself look even more like an idiot. Somewhat 'hiding' behind the mug as she looks back to Rasa from above it while still holding the mug with both hands front of her. "Really sorry, I really need to work on thinking more about what I say, really put my foot in my mouth there." She offers in an apology... setting the mug down on the table then as she picks up her pencil and focuses for a few moments to getting the fur detail and shape of an ear in the drawing done satisfactorily "Damn thats hard..." muttered to herself while she is at it. Then looking back up to Rasa again. "Oh, I also just realized that I have completely forgotten my manners as well, I am Mai." She offers as introduction. Rasa's head shifts from side to side, brow wrinkling up in frustration. "Don't be so apologetic that you use the bad words. Don't need another rising." Ze takes a quick sip and sets down hir mug. Ze moves to pick up hir sandwich and takes a bite, starting to enjoy the silence and being ignored -- until ze isn't anymore. "You just now..." Ze exhales and shakes hir head once more. "No need to worry about manners around me. I've become accustomed to people I don't know being rather shitty to me. Manners are kind of a novelty." Mai focuses her attention more on Rasa again now when it seems at least like there is some less awkward conversation going, listening to what the other person is saying. "I just... don't think anyone should have to get accustomed to something like that. But at the same time, I do understand that such a beautiful dream is not likely to become reality any time soon, if the current events are anything to read into. Sometimes it feels like the whole world hates us, instead of just a, very loud, minority of jerks." Realizing she had started ranting a bit, she does a subject change by lifting up the her sketch book and showing the drawing she was working on to Rasa. "Do you think this is worth keeping? I am planning on surprising my friend, but I am not sure if its good enough to be appropriate gift, I am terrible in evaluating anything I do myself, as I am way too critical of it." "Must be nice to not have to deal with it all the time," Rasa looks Mai over and then turns hir attention back to hir sandwich as the other person goes over beautiful dreams and minorites. Ze has hir mouthful when Mai wants hir to look at the sketch again. Hir eyes scan it as ze chews, setting hir sandwich down and picking up hir napkin. "If it's a gift for your friend and you're not purposefully making it look less than your best, then give it to them. They will probably appreciate it. If they're your friend and all." Mai offers a slight shrug at that observation from Rasa. "Well... I suppose your right with that. It can be useful sometimes, but it also feels kind of like... cheating? I don't know if thats the right word. Makes me feel bad that I can just hide it when my friends have to deal with it all the time. I sometimes wish I could change places with them, just to let them have an easier time... even for short time." She explains, looking down to the sketch then as Rasa gives their opinion on it, nodding. "Thanks, I will do that when I see them next." is offered with a smile. "I am trying to get better at drawing, fur is really hard to do though, I am hoping to study drawing at like university or something eventually, so I can become actually good at it. Like I have watched some videos where some people can just like that make these awesome looking drawings. I want to be like that some day too." "It'd probably be really good for you to have a change of perspective. Very altruistic now, but honestly, even that wouldn't be accurate. You'd know it was temporary, so you could endure it for the hour... day or week that you did it. The person you traded with would likely be quite depressed when they had to go back to living their life. So... essentially, shitty all around unless there was a real purpose to it." Rasa licks hir lips and raises hir brows before taking another bite into hir sandwich, ignoring all the conversation about art school and skill. Mai sets the sketchbook down on the table again and puts down the pencil for now, picking up her tea mug again for another sip as she considers what Rasa is saying. "Hmm... thats a good point, I hadn't really thought about it from that angle, I had just thought it would be a relief for them. Well, not that I actually -can- do that anyway." she notes with a sigh. "I do my best to stand up to my friends though if anyone tries to pick on them. If there is one thing that I can't stand, its bullies, regardless of the excuse they are using for harassing people... there seems to have been lot of bullies at large lately." "Of course, you didn't." Rasa sounds exhausted. Ze begins to wrap hir sandwich up in hir napkins, lifting hir mug to start to drain the hot liquid. When ze pulls the mug away, pink tinges hir cheeks heavily. "It might serve you well just to stop talking quite so much and listen to these friends of yours instead of living in beautiful dreams of equality and happy, getting along, shiny people. I... gotta go." Ze gets up and starts pulling on hir coat. Mai listens to what Rasa is saying, staying mostly quiet herself through it, as if already starting to follow their advice. "I think it is important to have dreams, otherwise there is nothing to look forward to." She offers in somewhat sad tone, lifting her hand up to give a wave as Rasa starts to get ready to go. "Stay safe, It was nice meeting you..." she trails away as she realizes that she didn't actually get the other persons name. "See? There you go again, thinking about your opinion moreso that what other people are telling you." Ze rolls hir eyes as ze picks up the mug and finishes the contents, face definitely a heated pinkish red now. "Look, I'm not saying that you can't have dreams and hopes, but telling other people about them when they're saying something else is counter productive. Just... friggin' listen." Ze inhales and stuffs hir napkin wrapped sandwich into hir pocket after ze pulls hir hat for it. "Have a nice night." Ze definitely does not give hir name. Mai gives a somewhat surprised look at that last part, but doesn't continue on the subject anymore, as she doesn't want to risk further upsetting Rasa, only offering a nod of acknowledgment as she watches the other mutant leaving, she did already offer farewell after all.)